This invention relates to antennas and, more particularly, to economical forms of antennas employing U-dipole radiating elements of unitary sheet metal construction.
For a variety of reasons it is desirable to provide highly reliable, low cost antennas suitable for meeting the requirements of cellular communication applications. Prior types of antennas suitable for such applications have typically required a significant number of components, some of which may involve costly fabrication techniques, and involve relatively complex and expensive construction and assembly.
A new type of radiating element of U-dipole form, which is capable of fabrication by one piece stamping from conductive sheet stock, is disclosed and described in copending application Ser. No. 08/803,658, filed Feb. 21, 1997, titled U-Dipole Radiating Elements and Antennas and commonly assigned with the present application. The U-dipole form of radiating element provides the potential for use in new forms of antennas providing advantages of simplicity of construction and low cost fabrication.
Objects of the present invention are to provide new and improved antennas utilizing U-dipole elements and such antennas having one or more of the following characteristics or features:
plug-in construction with U-dipole elements inserted into a printed circuit board; PA1 electrical connection by soldering U-dipole element feed segments to a feed network on a printed circuit board; PA1 U-dipole element structural support by insertion into a printed circuit board; PA1 feed network/structural printed circuit board supported directly by back reflector; PA1 U-dipoles supported by a printed circuit board in single or dual array configuration; PA1 array polarization determined by slant alignment of U-dipoles in an array; and PA1 diplexer arrangements for configurations such as 45 degree polarization for signal reception and vertical polarization for signal transmission.